Also in my experience, the extra bucks you spend thinking your computer still perform in four years aren't worth it. Better to aim a little lower and upgrade ram/gpu in a couple of years.

 

An i7 2600k will still probably be more than enough for gaming 4 years down the line with loads of games being console ports and if by some miracle new consoles arrive with more cores, from 3 to 6 for the xbox, the i7 will be well placed as with HT it has 8 cores. the only thing you'll need to upgrade is the GPU, but even now there are rumours of them using an amd 7650 or something like that which is slower than a 5850 which came out about 2 years ago. There is no way your pc will be out of date for gaming since my 4 year old PC, amd athlon x4 with a 6950, plays most games at above 50 fps at 1440p.

 

the new consoles aren't even going to be an issue.

The x360 and ps3 weren't comparable to top of the line PC's in 2006, and the new consoles won't be comparable to top of the line pc's (like this one will be) in 2012.

Only get a 2600k (or the ivy bridge with hyperthreading) if you expect you'll be doing heavy video editing or encoding (or some similar task).

 

Been going through this thread, wondering what half the stuff means. I need a new PC too. I'll keep my laptop for writing and work, but a new desktop for gaming is in order.

This is the offer a guy made me. It includes assembling cost (I don't know shit about this):


INTEL CORE I7 (1155) 2600
GIGABYTE (1155) GA-H67M-D2 B3
RAM 8GB DDR3 1333
MEMORY 500GB WD
DVD RECORDER SAMSUNG SATA
VIDEO SAPPHIRE 6870 1GB DDR5
SOURCE SENTEY 650W ERP
BODY SENTEY 4284

PRICE $1400

I'm not too fussy about the price. Stuff in Argentina will be way more expensive than anything you guys can get in the civilized world, a problem Castiel seems to share. What concerns me is compatibility. I'm afraid the guy might be looking to get rid of some parts he's having trouble selling, so he dumped them all on me. I've no idea if these parts actually go well together. I think the term is bottenecking?

Thanks for your input.

PS: Don't mean to hijack the thread. It just seemed pointless to start a new one for a such a short and related question. Sorry, Cas!

 

Firstly, an update, my PC getting plan is on a hold (hence no response), something came up. I will start my research again in 2-3 days and then check everything out.

Thanks for all the responses. I appreciate them a lot.

I don't know much either but, No. Just, No. $6530 for this? Hell no.

No worries.

 

Uh. I forgot to change the currency. $6350 is about... US$1400

 

It seems fair then. I am no good at checking compatibility issues so wait for someone else for that.

Good luck!

 

That seems really high, I'd say you could build an equivalent one yourself for around half the price going by prices in the states. I'd say those parts cost around $850 in the states in total. And I'd swap out some of them, like the i7. It all just depends what the prices are like in Argentina.

 

Everything, with no exceptions, is more expensive. This is because there's a real and harsh limit on imports. In fact, some of the parts don't even get here anymore. The ones on sale got here before the retarded protectionist measures that started a few months ago. As this problem doesn't seem to have a near-future solution, I only expect prices on any imported products to go up. You should see the prices on meds...

Anyway, I'll keep browsing. The biggest problem I have now is that stores here don't have neat displays of parts they sell and their prices. You have to hunt them down and drill the answers out of people.

...


I hate this country. Passionately.

 

There's nothing inherently wrong with the build as far as compatibility goes, but it could be better. Some tips:

The i7 is overkill for gaming; a top-line i5 (2400 or 2500) is a much better bet value-wise.

The motherboard you have listed is a Micro-ATX board, which means it's going to be very short on features. It only has two RAM slots and no capability to run two graphics cards if you want to go that route in the future. A full ATX board with either the Z68 or P67 chipset would be ideal, though it will probably also bring up the cost. This one is really a matter of what you can afford and personal feature preferences.

The RAM is a tad on the slow side, but not terrible (DDR3 1600 is the best balance of price/performance, or at least it tends to be in the US).

The generic case is iffy. They often are pretty flimsy and have poor airflow, but that's not always true.

Last, but definitely not least, get a name-brand PSU. A generic one can fail spontaneously (and spectacularly), taking all of your other components with it. Corsair and Seasonic are two of the best brands, and still fairly widely available. If there's only one thing you change on the build, it should be this.

 

Yeah, the price is retardedly expensive for the parts. That much I understood from checking US stores.

Thank you guys for your input. What I really need to do is get this stuff from the US. The problem? If you buy stuff and try to bring it here (and if it costs more than US$200) you have to pay a 50% tax on it for its total value. So if I were to get a PC of these characteristics in the US, it'd still cost me about $1400...

Then again, the simple solution is to buy the most expensive parts abroad and smuggle them in. A full PC doesn't go unnoticed. A couple of chips can. Then I can get the source, RAM, etc. here.

So thanks! Guess it's waiting time for me.

 

If you're just gaming and have no plans to overclock, buy the cheapest i5 quad core you can. The difference between them is very marginal. Also there is no worthwhile difference between the Sandy Bridge (i3/5/7 2xxx) and Ivy Bridge (i3/5/7 3xxx) processors, there is just up to a 10% improvement on some tasks.

i5 2300, i5 2310, i5 2400 are all great value for money.

 

So, some real life stuff came up. Had to take care of it. Then I started playing 24/7. :| Anyways, I have started going over the available stuff again. Checking out hardware forums and stuff.

I was just wondering, if there is anything new I should know about? I don't exactly have tabs on what is latest in the world of computer hardware.

Thanks!

---------- Post automerged at 09:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:14 PM ----------

Okay, made some changes to the last build.

Came down to,

Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I53570K - $229.99

Decided on,

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) Desktop Memory Model F3-17000CL9D-8GBXM - $69.99

Same, but I am wondering if should replace the 1Tb Caviar Black with a 2Tb Caviar Green which costs exactly the same. Or if I should get an external HDD for more data?

This is a part where I am a little confused. I really like this but I think there are better options out there. Any opinions?

One question, do I need to upgrade this if I want to,
a) Play games like TF2, CS:GO (coming in August I think), Arma II, Arma III (soon to come), AC3 (soon to come) at FULL settings.
b) Run dual monitors.
c) Both of the above.

Same.

Out of stock. Need more options.

Same.

About the motherboard, this one is a little more expensive but I really like ASUS and it also looks badass. :| There are just literally so many to chose from all with great reviews, how am I supposed to make a choice?

Anyways, bringing the processor down has given me an extra 120 bucks, so I can upgrade the GPU or Motherboard, but I don't really want to if it is not needed.

 

Memory:
Get something cheaper. Unless you're doing something inherently memory intensive, the extra speed is wasted. Have a look at the following:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148544
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226217
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231544
^ all $45.99

Drive:
Go for the green, you've already got an SSD listed. You only need the black if you want both storage capacity and access times.

Case:
Go by aesthetics mostly, since this is something you'll be seeing for as long as you use it. The Corsair Obsidian 650D is a good choice though.

Graphics Card:
It'll do all that and more. Not sure how intensive Arma III will be though, but a 670 should be able to pull through depending on resolution.

Power Supply:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020 is the updated version - $84.99 ($64.99 after MIR)

Motherboard:
As with cases, make a list of features you want and go from there. If you're still having trouble, take a look at Intel made motherboards:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...93976 600315497&IsNodeId=1&name=Intel Z75/Z77

 

Probably overkill - past DDR3-1600, you don't see all that much of a difference. Look for stuff with a low CAS latency (7 or 8). Nothing really wrong with this set though.

If your SSD is large enough to hold the majority of your programs, then there's nothing wrong with the Green. Just know that it runs slower (5400 vs 7500 RPM) than a normal desktop hard drive, so if you put any games that load scenes from the hard drive on it, you'll notice.

Once you get into that price range with cases, the difference are largely aesthetic. Just pick one that you like. The best brands are probably Silverstone, Coolermaster (HAF series), Corsair, Lian-Li, and Antec.

You're probably fine. If you want to game across both screens, then you might be pushing the envelope a bit, but I wouldn't try to game across only two screens since it puts a big black bar (the monitor bezels) right in the middle of your FOV. Stick to odd numbers of screens for games.

Anything by Seasonic, Corsair, or Antec is a safe bet. Keep it over 600W to stay on the safe side, power-wise.

It looks cool, but it's overkill. You may also run into issues with the memory you picked not running at it's listed clock speed, since DDR3-1600 is the highest that the Sabertooth is listed as supporting.

You can narrow down the options considerably by limiting your search to just Z77 motherboards and sorting by rating. I would probably go with this one or this one.

 

This liiks good: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231544

Thanks.

Just what I wanted to know. Thanks.

Okay, I don't really have any plans right now. But if I were to decide to start using 3 screens, will this be sufficient? Since I might or might not do it. Can I buy this one now, and if/when I decide to use 3 screens, attach another another one in SLI? Will that be enough?

Going with this for now, thanks.

Like I said, I prefer ASUS, so for now, going with:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131830 that coleam suggested.

Got another one. Thanks.

That seems to be a good choice, yes. I will look a little more.

I think that covers most everything. I will draw up a final list and post here soon. All I need now is someone to help me make sure everything will be compatible. I will check myself but I don't want to miss anything so any help will be appreciated.

And thanks for all the help so far.

 

Double >_>